District's Metal Recycling Project Highly Successful

With the current budget cutbacks affecting Broward County Public Schools, finding a way to save money, is a way to benefit students.

In January of this year, having already had success in recycling chillers and copper wire, personnel in the District's Physical Plant Operation (PPO) division expanded the recycling program for ferrous and non-ferrous metals, and it is beginning to pay off. As a large organization, the District frequently has equipment that wears-out or breaks-down and is beyond its normal, useful life. That equipment, however, may still contain valuable metals.

Each of the four maintenance zones, District Maintenance and the Custodial Grounds departments has a designated pick-up area. During normal pick-up or delivery of other materials, scrap metals are picked-up and taken to a central staging area for later distribution to scrap metal yards. With the cooperation of all PPO field employees and the support of management, PPO has collected over $50,000 to date. As a result of this program, 251,203 pounds (more than 125 tons) of metals have been recycled. If these items had been placed in dumpsters, the disposal cost would have been approximately $37,000.

Items are constantly being reviewed and analyzed, and if cost effective, added to the recycling program. Through continuous improvement and the involvement of all stakeholders, the recycling program continues to be a success.